Since 2010 BLC has supported the families and community of Windom Community School. We understand the needs of working families, and strive to create an environment where your children are able to strive and become leaders. Our bicultural staff brings many perspectives and experiences to our program, empowering students to become socially responsible and caring to the world around them. It’s not all work, no fun, we also love to celebrate birthdays, holidays and festivities.
One of our unique aspects as a program is our bilingual approach to Spanish learning. While English is the primary language at Windom, we integrate Spanish intentionally two times a week, as well as work with vocabulary words, repetition, and instruction in Spanish led by our Native speakers. This immersive approach allows children to naturally pick up new words and phrases by listening, and watching for non verbal communication. With a lot of encouraging words, the students pick up the language quickly, whether they realize it or not!
We provide dedicated time to complete homework and support them when needed. Bilingual storytelling, and reading is part of our daily routine, promoting literacy and listening skills. We encourage you to let us know how we can best support your children with their individual academic needs.
Keeping students engaged, active and having fun is a key part of our daily routine. We build community and strong friendships through movement in games, teambuilding, and sports matches. As well as using the school’s gym and playground to mix up the physical activity options!
Yoga and calming activities is part of our weekly routine, this activity often starts elevated and energized and ends with calming breathing exercises, helping them relax and find inner calm. We prioritize this balanced approach to better support our student’s emotional well being and development. These techniques and activities are for the students to use when needing to calm down in the future.
Art is another key part of our program that we use to promote creativity, confidence and self expression. We love drawing inspiration from artists and introducing the work and stories to the kids through books, clay, painting and more. Music, dance and cooking is part of the art we bring to the program as well!
Our pogram is broken down into four sessions based on the seasons: Fall, Spring, Summer and Winter. Register before the deadline stated on our news and flyers. Ask about registering in the middle of a session, if there is room available we can make arrangements!
On top of the before and after school, we also offer classes Monday through Friday for an hour. Classes are available to be registered separately from our other programs!
Our goal is to create a safe space where the children can explore and discover their talents and interests, grow confidence, and learn values and skills.
In our cooking classes we learn an important skill, and appreciate the art of food from many different cultures, taekwondo teaches the value of patience, responsibility and discipline, and our art class explores creativity through various mediums and learning how to reuse and repurpose materials to create something beautiful. The different options of classes change throughout the year, learn about upcoming classes below.
7:30 - 9:30 AM Monday - Friday
AM care starts the day with a healthy breakfast, and quick movement activites to get us woken up and ready for the day. A planned activity and a storytelling / reading session is our daily routine as students are dropped off throughout the morning. Students are left at their classrooms when school begins.
4:00 - 6:00 PM Monday - Friday
PM care starts with a snack and chat in the cafeteria. We then separate into the groups who have classes, and those who will be doing BLC activities. We start with storytelling, movement activities and then storytelling, independent reading and homework help if needed. We end the day with a planned activity, and a relaxed game together. Friday is our fun friday where the whole day is fun activities.
4:15 - 5:15 PM Monday - Friday
Classes vary based on the season and interests of everyone. Our repeating sessions have been cooking, taekwondo, art and theater. We’ve explored chess, dancing, ballet, STEM and even manicures for kids and artisanal soap making. Fill in the online Windom registration form and check the box for enrichment classes to register!
We also offer academic tutoring during the school year! We collaborate with the student’s teacher and support them in reaching the classroom’s academic goals. Register through our online Windom registration form and check the box for tutoring. There will be a choice to make these sessions bilingual, English or Spanish focused, as well as a choice for which subject to focus on.
Allow us at least one week to find a fitting instructor. We will contact you promptly.
We will be open for non-school days during the academic year for full day care or days we call “Release days”. These days are themed and will have a routine similar to our Summer camp, that is in line with the theme. We’ve had pajama day, music day, animals and more!
Release day dates (no school day care):
October 3 & 16.
November 5
December 13
January 24
February 14
February 28
March 31
April 1, 2, 3
We are not open for MEA break, spring break (only some dates), or winter break.
Learn more about our summer camp! Hosted at our Nokomis site, during June – August we offer camp you may register on a week by week basis. Weekly field trips, swimming, trips to the park and cooking!